McLaren suffered yet another nightmare in Saudi Arabia, after both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished outside the points for the second consecutive race. Norris already started at the back of the grid due to an error in qualifying, while Piastri managed to qualify inside the top ten. But after contact with Pierre Gasly on the opening lap, the Australian was forced to pit with front wing damage which dropped him to the back. "I would classify it as one of those unfortunate situations," said Team Principal Andrea Stella to media, including RacingNews365.com . "We've checked the onboard, first of all from Oscar's car to check whether there is something to learn for next time. "I think Oscar was just as prudent as he could be, like looking from Gasly's onboard he looks like he just lost control, lifted a little bit and touched Oscar's front wing."
Stella: We take these things on the chin
Things went from bad to worse for McLaren when Lando Norris hit the debris from Piastri's front wing in the following laps, causing enough damage to also force him to pit. As a result both McLaren drivers lost around 30 seconds in the pits at the start, confining them to the back of the pack for most of the race. "But even more unfortunate, though, is that Lando hit the debris coming from Oscar's front wing," said Stella. "Clearly in the data it was a massive loss of downforce, it would not be possible to continue like that, and we were not even helped by the fact that there was no Safety Car. "So we needed to take the hit of the stop on the first lap, plus the front wing change, plus the [lack of] Safety Car. We take these things to the chin, we are racers, we don't give up."
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